My daughter and I have been educating people that we come across. I have been faced with many people (even my own mother) saying that a little won't hurt me. My mother rushed me to the hospital after my first reaction. I must have been about 6 years old. I don't remember much except that I did not swallow. My upper lip swelled up enough to cover my nose and my lower lip was hanging down around my chin. I was terrified.

I did not have another reaction till I was about 12. Again I did not swallow. I was at camp and had I swallowed I don't think the helicopter would have gotten there in time to airlift me out alive. Since that day I have not eaten baked goods unless I made them.

My next reaction was after I got married and I reacted to my husband's body fluids. It took until our third child was born before I figured it out. DH has vowed to never eat nuts again even though he misses them.

Since I turned 30, I can sense nuts. Once at a dinner where the meal was pre-ordered, I got a fork full of beans to about 6 inches away from my mouth. I immediately put the fork down and called a waiter to ask what it was on the plate. There were almonds on the beans. Another time while Christmas shopping, I suddenly felt like I was moonwalking. When I felt normal again, I turned around and saw a display of shelled nuts at a candy store. Yet another time I was at a ladies seminar on female issues. As the evening wore on I became dizzy and unable to focus. By the end of the evening I could barely breath. The moment we stepped out of the room, I was fine again. It turned out that they were selling their creams and candles, all with almond oil.

I understand about the bubble that you want to stay in. I did that for a long time. My turning point was about 5 years ago. I had volunteered to be a counselor at summer camp. Half way through the week I had a run in with the camp headcook. I asked to read the ingredients on an item because I had a feeling about it. She told me there were no ingredients. I insisted and when I found the "may contain" label, she said that they just put that on it so they can't be sued. Yikes! I was trusting my life to this lady. After a good cry and prayer with a friend, I realized that I have a purpose on this earth and I need to live my life to it's fullest. Of course I now bring a lot of my own food to camp, but this year will be my 6th year as a counselor.

Another risk is dinners at church. I bring out my needle and make sure that I have someone with me who knows how to use it. If I can't bring a family member, I go without eating. Regardless I wash my hands every time I touch something that may be questionable, including shaking hands with people.

I recieved your pm's. I would rather communicate on the message board. Some of my worst experiences are listed above. There were a couple of other instances with hazelnuts where I had full body hives right from my toes to my scalp. My eyes were just about swollen shut. This leads me to believe that hazelnuts are not as bad because I only had an itchy mouth, not swollen.
I developed my allergy to bananas when I was in my 30s. I have been afraid to eat bananas for the past few years and now I think I am starting to get hives from eggs. Track record tells me that these will both get worse.

As for alternatives, I can handle that one. My granddaughter has a list of allergies and sensitivites so long that we went into shock to start with. I can make a perfectly appetizing meal and dessert without the use of beef, nuts, eggs, dairy, soy, strawberries, citrus fruit, gluten, tomatoes, seeds, or exotic fruits. And in case my mother comes to visit, I can also remove corn and pork from that list.
I had run ins over the phone with companies while my granddaughter was trying foods. We noticed her allergies right away and determined to try one food at a time. Baby food companies would not tell me what the spices were. They asked what my granddaughter was allergic to. I siad that we don't know because we are trying her. So I quit buying baby food and started making it all myself.
On the upside, the local bakery gaves us a tour and a look at every recipe and ingredient list. That was before we knew she was sensitive to gluten. A local meat store makes special recipes of sausages for me without peppers. I just have to buy a whole batch. This doesn't bother me because they taste great even without the cayenne pepper.

Thanks for your input and I hope I can give you some support. We don't have to live in fear. We just have to be cautious and aware of everything around us.

I was about 18 when I developed my allergies, and I know a woman of about 35 who just became allergic to nuts, although I don't know how severe her allergies are. I sympathize with you!

Let me tell you one trick that seems to work for me. Many times we tend to do what is expected of us, or what needs to be done for everyone else before we take care of ourselves. Well recently I have started giving myself "permission" to react to a social situation in the way that will make me feel most comfortable. So I will now go to whatever function is happening but decide once I get there if I will eat, or even leave if needed. I try to make the focus on visiting the people, and many times have not eaten a single thing. I no longer care if people think it funny that I don't eat at a food-focused event. It took me a while to reach this space and I still get stressed out about eating in restaurants, but not as bad as I used to. Sometimes I will just whip an orange out of my purse and have that while everyone else orders.

I am allergic to both
Mom gave me a taste of peanut butter when I was 9 months old and it made me sick throughout the night.
I was in kindergarten when I had a reaction to walnuts in banana bread.
I had allergy testing done when I was 12 (i think) and basically avoid any and everything with any nut in any form
Mom did a great job when I was young with the home baking and treats that she would make from scratch just for me.
All my friends have been very understanding about my allergy, so that helps alot, most boyfriends too, though one was umm a jerk about it at times so if he eatting them I would sleep in the spare room that night and keep my distance. So romantic to have to ask your partner what they have eatten eh?
I've just found this site so I'll be checking it all out and posting here and there.
Janaya in Victoria

Yup. I've always been allergic to peanuts. As for tree nuts, it came slowly along, one by one, getting the same reaction overtime I had with peanuts so I (and my parents since I was still very young) decided not to play russian roulette and ban all of them from my diet.

Youngvader, with me it was first all tree nuts and then the peanut one snuck up on me until one day, full blown ana. reaction. My allergist always said that it must be some where in my family that one person had similiar. No one that I know of. How about any one in your family, suffer from same.?

As far as we know I am the only one who is ana to tree nuts and peanuts. I don't know about my huge network of second cousins and beyond, only aunts/uncles/ cousins.

On my fathers side his sister had a nut allergy which she outgrew as a teenager, but her reaction was never as bad as mine have been, her youngest has a mild to moderate reaction to nuts, but some of that could also have to do with her diet and have been a reaction to all of the sugars and highly processed foods she was eatting at a young age.

Even though I'm the only one with it my family has been great about it. I must give alot of credit adn thanks though to my step-gram who has been ever so understanding and careful from the begining. Growing up she always made sure there was a safe nut free dessert for me, we kept it away from anything containing nuts, seperate utensils and all for serving and she would even make a nut free christmas cake for us!
I will ask my cousin, see if shes outgrown like her mom did or if she is now ana to nuts like me. I'm also planning to talk to my new dr about seeing an allergist, just to see where I stand with things now with my other mild allergies.....

Nope. I was the first and only one diagnosed with peanuts and tree nuts allergies. My mother has eczema and seasonnal allergies and she has a very sensitivie skin, so my allergy gene probably comes from there, but I'm the only one with food allergies.

Both grandmas had extremely severe eczema while growing up and still have some level of it left. My dad has no known allergies (but we suspect a few...) and my mom has azelnuts (only) and oral allergy syndrom as well as severe seasonal allergies. My sister was anaphylactic to milk when young (almost lost her twice... first time she stayed in the hospital for over a week... the day she was to go out, the nurse gave her ice cream because she was soo cute ) but has outgrown it. She started seasonal allergies in the past few years as well as seasonal. And that's just my close family... not even going into cousins and aunts/ uncles .

And then there is ME , the result of great genetics : Grew up with severe eczema and my allergies grow over time... some faster than otherse. The list is long and weird (3 worst are: fish, carrots, milk). But I still eat my peanut butter in the morning as those are not on my list!

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